What's new in NetCrunch

See the most important features, enhancements and fixes

10.3April 2018

Monitoring

Generic IPMI Sensor

New IPMI sensor can monitor all possible parameters available on the monitored device.
A filter allows specifying the exact parameters to be monitored. Parameters can be filtered based on their type, entity (i.e. location) and name.

UI Improvements

GrafCrunch and new Grafana Plugin

Grafcranch and Grafana plugin have been updated to the latest version of Grafana 5.0.1

UI Improvements

Improved managing of interface monitoring

You can now setup interface monitoring policy using a filtering expression. You can pick interfaces even one by one now.

Other

Improved Windows Service Control Action

Now the action can be executed on the service causing event dynamically, instead of executing it on statically selected service. This allows better handling alert set on any services.

Other

Other Improvements

Performance Improvements

reduced memory usage of ESXi monitoring process

reduced memory usage of Apache Server monitoring process

the desktop console can load several thousand of atlas views in few seconds

Security Updates

Java runtime updated to version 10.0.1

OpenSSL 1.0.2o (March 27, 2018)

UX/UI Improvements

Map layout of Physical Segments have been improved

Desktop Console stability and performance have been improved

Improved stability of the remote probe

You can now set dynamic view filtering upon interface monitoring state

Improved look and feel of Node Status window

It's possible to change Network Prefix of multiple nodes in multiselection now

Oracle SQL sensor improvements

Improved connection profile settings

added ability to set the custom port for Oracle database connection

10.2March 2018

Monitoring

REST HTTP/S Sensors

It's a fully capable REST sensor with many possible options, such as: custom requests, custom headers and custom cookies.
This sensor allows you to access any API and process any data thanks to the new Data Parsers.

Monitoring

Basic IPMI Sensor

This sensor can monitor various hardware parameters, such as system temperature, fan speed, power supply voltages etc. The availability of these parameters depends on the hardware monitored and the IPMI configuration of the monitored device.

Monitoring

TruVision Recorder Sensor

This sensor monitors popular video recorders (made by Interlogix) used for video surveillance.
It monitors HDD usage, the status of a connected camera, and status of TruVision recorder device.
The sensor triggers alerts when any connected camera signal is lost, HDD space is running low and in other situations.

The sensor is available on request

Monitoring

SQL Sensor improvements

We improved support for more complex queries. Now you can use any query including joins, conversions and column aliases.

Monitoring

WMI HDD Smart sensor

Data Parsers

Data parsers allow transforming any external data into NetCrunch format, describing counters and status objects. There are several sensors, such as REST, Generic Agent and Data File, which can use Data Parser to retrieve these data from external sources.

This allows monitoring any data you get from REST API or by file. Data Parsers support XPath, JSONPath, DOM Selectors and Javascript.

NetCrunch includes mini-IDE with syntax highlighting and live script execution on test data.

Monitoring

SSH Remote Ping

This new sensor allows for remotely checking the connectivity using a SSH connection (which is basically available on all Linux machines).

Monitoring

IP Camera Sensor

This sensor allows taking snapshots from an IP Camera and placing them as a widget on a map.

Other

Support for XPath & JSONPath

We added full support for XPath and JSONPath expressions to Text Parsing expressions and new Data Parsers.

Additionally, XPath expression supports DOM Selectors, well known from HTML and CSS.

Other

New Web TrendViewer

A new trend view for Web Console replaces the old implementation and brings much better user experience.

Other

Easily create Icons from JPEG images

On the Internet, you can find many jpeg images for various devices. However, these images are often on a white background and are usually too big to use in an icon format.
Now NetCrunch can resize these images and remove the background automatically, creating perfect icons for you.

Other

Other Important Changes

Now NetCrunch automatically monitors only active interfaces on switches

The program checks for Atlas Data integrity before performing a backup, to avoid creating useless backups

10.0December 2017

Full IPv6 support

Every monitor, node, and sensor now accepts IPv6 addresses. If a node is monitored by DNS name, you can select which address version will be used for monitoring.

Monitoring

SNMP Improvements

NetCrunch comes with improved SNMPv3 support and thousands of new MIBs precompiled. The database contains over 8500 MIBs with roughly 800,000 objects, which makes it one of the largest MIB collections in the world.
Using MIB compiler and creating module filters is much easier now.

Monitoring

Remote Sensor Node

You can create a node just to receive data from a remote agent.
You can easily create a monitoring agent (in few script lines and using curl) and send data using REST API to such node. Its status is determined by the agent activity.

Monitoring

Layer 2 Maps Improvements

Layer2 maps support Etherchannels now. The main view shows switches with their connections. Additionally, we added 2 new monitoring packs for monitoring switch port (Link Aggregation) and for monitoring if node port link has been changed (Physical Segments).

Monitoring

Updated VLAN support

VLAN dynamic folder has been added to default Atlas views

Information about VLAN is available as a column in node details grid

Monitoring

Extended Multiselection

NetCrunch fully supports multi-selection operations on all node settings. So, it's easy to add a service or change certain monitor settings on multiple nodes at once.

Configuration

Organizational Groups

Dealing with views of organizational groups has never been easier.
Add nodes to an organizational group and assign a user to the given group. As a result, the user will see nodes from the given group only. There is no need to create separate views, as all views will be filtered accordingly. Organizational groups are supported in Web Console and in GrafCrunch.

UI Improvements

Flow Dashboard

Flow dashboard is available for every Atlas View. Additionally, it now supports multiple flow sources and you can filter by flow sources.

Configuration

Business Status Node

Business Status Node allows you to combine status of various elements such as nodes, services or sensors into one, virtual node status.

With this node, you easily define a status for critical or redundant elements.

Monitoring

SQL Sensors

The sensors allow measuring query execution, but more importantly, they allow for of the processing returned data. Multi-row results can be easily converted into performance metrics. Single row result can be treated as an object with properties, so NetCrunch can alert on state change.

Monitoring

SSL Certificate Sensor

This sensor allows checking of the SSL certificate expiration date, and various certificate properties. Additionally, HTTP sensors get a very similar capability. The sensor can be used to validate any SSL/TLS based connection, not just for HTTP/S.

WQL Query:Object - Query WMI for an object and trigger alerts on its state

Monitoring

New Integrations

We added support for sending MQTT messages and support for SMS Eagle and AlertOps services.

Monitoring

Text Log Sensor

This new sensor allows for remote log monitoring by using ssh/bash. The text log sensor supports multiple sources such as Windows/SMB, FTP/S, HTTP/S, SSH/Bash, and SFTP.

Monitoring

Data File Sensor

This new sensor replaces the old Open Monitor feature. It allows for polling data from a remote file using various channels such as FTP/S, HTTP/S, SSH/Bash, SFTP, Windows/SMB. It can be added to any node, even to one without any address (Remote Sensor Node).

System Uptime Sensor

Upgraded All Sensors

Common Updates

You can change the display of the sensor (click next to its name at the pencil)

All connections, protocols, and authentication settings are managed through profiles

Sensor alerts are suppressed on node DOWN the same way as network service alerts

All sensors provide test button for real-time parameter testing

Specific updates

DNS Sensor has a better ability to check any DNS record and allows for performing reverse requests.

Generic Agent Sensor can now receive data for multiple nodes in a single POST request.

HTTP/S Sensors support custom headers and cookies.

Configuration

Redundant Mail Servers

NetCrunch now can handle multiple redundant SMTP servers. You can define up to 10 SMTP servers, which are checked in order to send a notification email.

Configuration

Node Monitoring Templates

NetCrunch allows for easy changing of settings for multiple nodes. Now you can define a template for the node which synchronizes settings for sensors, monitoring packs and monitors for multiple nodes automatically.